Support

Answers to the common questions, and how to reach us.

Which files work?

EPUB ebooks, and M4B, M4A or MP3 audiobooks, without copy protection. Files bought from stores that use DRM (for example Audible or Kindle) cannot be opened. Add them with the + button in the library, or share an EPUB to Tandem Reader from Files.

Linking a book

After you add a book, Tandem Reader transcribes the audiobook with Apple's on-device speech recognition and matches every spoken word to the text. It runs once per book and takes a few minutes per hour of audio on a recent iPhone. You can leave the app; it continues in the background and finishes while the phone charges if it is interrupted. Every finished part is kept, so nothing is lost by stopping.

Tip for long books: if a very long audiobook keeps being stopped by iOS, keep Tandem Reader open on screen until it finishes. The screen stays awake while it works.

The match percentage

A book's page shows how much of the text was found in the narration. Front matter, notes, verse and appendices that are not read aloud lower the figure without affecting the story. "Show match by chapter" shows exactly where the gaps are. Within matched stretches, positions are exact to the word; within unmatched stretches they are estimated.

Reading and listening together

Play from a page: turn to the page and press play in the bar at the bottom of the reader.
Follow the narration: the toggle at the right of that bar turns pages automatically and highlights the spoken word.
Pause and resume: if the audio is already somewhere on the page you are looking at, play continues where it stopped.
Open the player from the reader: tap the chapter name in the bar.

Shelves, status and statistics

Make shelves from the view menu and move books onto them by holding a cover. Books become "finished" when you reach the end, or mark them yourself; "Reset to unread" takes a book back to the start. The statistics button shows books finished, time listened and pages read for this month, this year or all time.

Something not right?

Try Link again on the book's page first; it rebuilds the link from scratch while the current one keeps working. If that does not help, email support@tandemreader.app with the book title, what you expected and what happened.